Word: laboral
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Think of mergers and you typically imagine captains of industry egged on by big bankers. But this week's most significant consolidation is happening on the other side of the working world: between labor unions. The United Steelworkers (USW), America's largest private-sector union, is joining up with Unite, Britain's largest national union, to form the world's first transatlantic union. The deal, set to be inked on Wednesday at the Steelworkers' International Convention in Las Vegas, will create the grandiosely named Workers Uniting: The Global Union. Says USW President Leo W. Gerard: "We're creating...
...rationale for the ocean-spanning super union is obvious and ubiquitous: globalization. Most of the companies that labor deals with are globe-straddling multinationals, yet unions remain national organizations. That's widely considered one reason why organized labor has endured decades of decline in overall membership and in clout. Thomas A. Kochan, co-director of the Institute for Work and Employment Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is convinced the Steelworkers and Unite will make the merger work, he says, "but it will take time; it's uncharted territory." He points out that since t he USW already...
...able to ensure that a company can't reject defined benefits in one country that it's already agreed to in the other. Other issues more suited to a global union include international trade, workers' rights in the developing world and transnational shifts in employment. The merger also gives labor more muscle for dealing with bodies like the World Trade Organization, the European Commission and the increasing number of global forums on issues like climate change, he adds. "It allows them to create a position as an international player who gets noticed...
...Unite are marching to echoes of drumbeats past. Trade unionism has from its earliest days considered itself a global movement, albeit one organized at national levels. Certainly, a number of unions - including the Steelworkers - have formed alliances with foreign counterparts. And there are already several world-spanning labor bodies, including the International Trade Union Confederation and the International Metalworkers' Federation. For that reason, Richard Hyman, a professor of industrial relations at the London School of Economics, is skeptical the merger will work or is necessary. While unions need to better coordinate efforts on a global scale, he says, they would...
True, conscript labor and forced relocations are not the American way. But we shouldn't be happy to be lapped by a command economy. Thomas Friedman argued this week in the New York Times that this presidential campaign's signal issue is going to be the economy and our competitiveness. He's right, but he could have added that the World Trade Center is an ongoing - and far too neglected - referendum on those very issues...